One comment on “Episode 402: Is That You, Nancy Drew?…and Other News”

I can’t profess to “care” about Nancy Drew exactly, but I do know a fair amount about how those books came to be. If you read them, you want to read the pre-1960s versions of the text, written (under the corporate pseudonym Carolyn Keene — just as no Franklin W. Dixon really exists) by Mildred Wirt Benson. She created Nancy as an ahead-of-her-time, independent, strong young female character. When the manuscripts were revised and abridged in the 1960s (to be fair, in response to some racial stereotyping that had rightly fallen out of favor), they were all shortened by five chapters, and Nancy was rewritten to be “domesticated” — more interested in boys, fashion, etc. It’s only in recent decades that Mildred Benson’s contributions to the character’s iconic status have been recognized.

Matt, your book-pruning project is admirable… I’ll see if I have the willpower to join you!

Ben’s comments about Admiral Ackbar — “He’s a character who comes out of nowhere… is in charge of the whole thing” — makes me think of Melchizedek: “Without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life…” (Hebrews 7.3). I think you’re onto something there, Ben. Maybe Han Solo will get promoted and they’ll tell him, “You are an admiral forever, after the order of Ackbar.”

Boy, Ben, could you say the title “Doctor Who” with any *more* disdain? Yikes! 😉

I strongly disagree that Rowling is “being lazy” by continuing to tell the Harry Potter stories on Twitter. I think that’s pretty innovative, actually – “real-time” updates of that world? Maybe a new model for storytelling. Not a book, no, but telling a story. I don’t think you’re giving her credit. Plus, you never know what seeds she is planting. I think storytelling in the 21st century is going to be increasingly across multiple platforms, and maybe not always just to make more money.